Week 2 - Forefront Friday: Scorn

Scorn (2018) Scorn is an upcoming first-person shooter horror game set to be released this October. The game features striking visual designs inspired by the work of H.R Giger. I find this game to be an interesting example of the forefront because it is a modern take on an artist's work that has influenced a lot of iconic games over the past few decades. I find it particularly interesting to see how this art style has been translated to the high fidelity 3D environments seen in Scorn.

 An early trailer for the game Scorn.

Dark Seed is a game from the early 1990's with a surrealistic art syle based on H.R. Giger's artwork. It is exciting for me to see how Scorn has been inspired by the same artist and brought this visual style into the modern technological age, allowing for fully interactive 3D alien landscapes.

A screenshot from the 1992 game Darkseed. The game features environments based on the work of H.R. Giger.

The developers have claimed they have designed the game around the idea of "being thrown into the world", and as such, very little context is given about the game's setting. This is an element that I love in video games, as ambiquity and trying to decipher the story for yourself is a big draw for me and is something I wish to include in my own work.

The developers have explained that they want to make the unsettling environment feel like a character in itself and this is an amazing concept that lends itself to a lot of creative visual storytelling. I want my own environment to almost take on a life of its own. As the player explores deeper into the mansion's dark halls, I want it to feel like they are slowly being swallowed by the monstrous structure.

CYBERDREAMS (1992) Dark Seed. [DISC] Amiga, MS-DOS, Amiga CD32, Macintosh, Sega Saturn, PlayStation. Calabasas: Cyberdreams.

EBB SOFTWARE (2018) Scorn - Part 1 of 2: Dasein. [DOWNLOAD] Microsoft Windows. San Francisco: Humble Bundle.

GAME NEWS OFFICIAL (2016) SCORN Official Trailer (2017). [Online Video]. July 9th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKTkCa5nB_8 [Accessed: 01/06/2018].

VENTURES, E. (2017) Exclusive Interview with Lead Developer of Scorn. [Online] Available from: http://opiumpulses.com/article/189 [Accessed: 01/06/2018]